Doctor Who - The 8th Doctor - 72 - To the Slaughter by Stephen Cole

Author:Stephen Cole
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Comics & Graphic Novels, General, Doctor Who (Fictitious Character), Fiction
ISBN: 9780563486251
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 2005-04-26T07:00:00+00:00

‘Never mind that! What are we going to do?’

‘Ask Torvin for a lift in his ship?’ suggested the Doctor.

But even as he spoke, there was a blinding white flash from outside. Seconds later, more debris was choking the view.

He sighed. ‘Perhaps not.’

‘Torvin?’ Trix was already haring back down the corridor. ‘How long before your mates pick you up?’

‘It’s that creature from Thebe, isn’t it?’ Torvin looked grey and haunted. ‘He wiped out my crew, now he’s come back for me!’

‘He’s come here for some purpose, certainly.’ The Doctor’s voice behind her made her jump; she hadn’t heard him approach. ‘But yes, now he knows we’re here, he’ll almost certainly want to kill us. So! Perhaps we should prepare some sort of barricade? Buy ourselves some time.’

‘This podule thing is under construction,’ said Trix. ‘Surely we can find some building materials or something to put against the docking hatch?’

‘Good thinking. Torvin, go with her and search.’

‘And what will you be doing?’ Trix asked.

‘No barricade is going to hold that creature for long,’ he said gravely. ‘We need a second line of defence.’

125

And he walked off, briskly.

‘Come on then,’ Trix told Torvin. ‘We can’t have long. It’ll be docking any minute.’

‘Escape capsule,’ he said, standing his ground. ‘Conference centre of bigwig business types – there’s bound to be an escape capsule! I can make it to my friends in that.’

‘Brilliant!’ Then her elation faded. ‘But this place isn’t finished. What if it’s not been built yet?’

‘Hey, Investigator.’ He gave her that goddamned ghost of a smile. It was cute and creepy all at once. ‘There’s only one way to find out.’

‘But the barricade,’ Trix said with a twinge of guilt. ‘We have to slow it down, buy the Doctor time to think of something.’

‘Oh. Yes, I guess you’re right.’ Torvin nodded. ‘A distraction could be useful, however small.’

With that, he punched Trix full in the face.

She staggered backwards and fell to the floor, cracking her head. Her eyes closed, and she didn’t know how long it was before they opened again.

‘A million and two ways to lose it.’ She propped herself up on her elbows.

There was a dull, thick ache in her jaw and she could taste blood at the back of her throat. Of Torvin, predictably, there was no sign. Bastard maniac.

Heavy, familiar footfalls sounded through the plastic floor. The thing was coming.

With nothing to stop it, it had just walked right in.

126

Chapter Sixteen

It was close to eleven, and Tinya’s menagerie was assembled in the stadium ground; not just the zoo animals, but journos and shutterbugs from across the galaxy, waiting for Halcyon: the star attraction.

She looked at the wild animals. There were hundreds of them, no expense spared – with the size of the arena, anything less would have looked lost. And this was about wonder. For wonder, you needed scale.

It was a good selection – big grey things with tusks, flapping ears and long noses, side by side with big catlike animals, all stripes or spots and large teeth, bears, birds, fat snakes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.